TBILISI TIPS
Accommodation options in the capital have improved hugely in recent years. The Iveria hotel, which once housed refugees, is now the impressive Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, Tbilisi (radissonhotels.com), and offers great views from the upper floors (although try to ignore the eyesore that is the Biltmore hotel – a good example of the unrestrained construction of recent years).
Also recommended are the hotels owned by Temur Ugulava, founder of Adjara Group. Rooms (roomshotels. com) and Stamba (stamba hotel.com) are co-located in a converted former Soviet-era newspaper printing house; the latter is higher-end but both have a lovely range of rooms and dining venues.
From the same group, there’s also Fabrika (fabrikatbilisi.com), which combines a hostel with a co-working space and a courtyard full of shops, cafés and a restaurant.
The Wyndham Grand has just opened in a central position just off Freedom Square (for a review visit businesstraveller.com/triedand-tested), next to a huge new mixed-use development that will open gradually over the next year or so. Best of all is the Sheraton Grand Tbilisi Metechi Palace, the most well-known of all of the city’s hotels, which was originally built in 1989 and reopened earlier this year following an extensive four-year renovation. See our next issue for a review.
Georgia’s cuisine is world-renowned. While in Tbilisi, try Shavi Lomi (the Black Lion; facebook.com/ shavilomirestaurant) for its interesting twists on Georgian traditional cuisine and its authentic atmosphere – it is set in some renovated old houses.
Outside the capital, you can go to wineries and sample their natural wines – try to visit Iago winery in Mtskheta (iago.ge) and Okro’s in Sighnaghi in the Kakheti region (okrogvino.com). Stay at the Radisson Collection Tsinandali Estate Georgia (radissonhotels.com).